


Mermaids and Sirens

by my_name_is_irrelevant



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aftermath of Violence, Angst, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Description of previous injuries, Gay Keith (Voltron), Implied/Referenced Self-Harm, M/M, Minor Injuries, Modern Era, Tags Are Hard, mermaid!lance, mind control?, other characters not mentioned in tags are mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-07
Updated: 2019-06-07
Packaged: 2020-04-12 06:33:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19126549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/my_name_is_irrelevant/pseuds/my_name_is_irrelevant
Summary: The water was not his forte. Not at all. He couldn’t swim, he couldn’t even float very well. But Pidge insisted there were man-eating mermaids in the ocean and they needed to find them.So here they were - Keith, Hunk, and Pidge that is - on a small boat they had saved up all their money to rent for three days and in the middle of fucking nowhere looking for goddamn mermaids.





	Mermaids and Sirens

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Welcome to this fic! I should probably note that this was only read over once by one of my friends (@artemis_writes), so if you have any suggestions on something I’ll definitely at least test it out!
> 
> Also, this fic has some minor violence and mentions of self harm, so if either of those trigger you this may not be the fic for you.
> 
> Thanks for reading!

 

The water was not his forte. Not at all. He couldn’t swim, he couldn’t even float very well. But Pidge insisted there were man-eating mermaids in the ocean and they needed to find them.

So here they were - Keith, Hunk, and Pidge that is - on a small boat they had saved up all their money to rent for three days and in the middle of fucking nowhere looking for goddamn mermaids.

Pidge, of course was thriving, they have never had qualms with the water and even swims relatively often as their family goes to visit Lake Erie every year.

Hunk was raised by the water, and was even a lifeguard now. In fact that was the main reason he came along, as Mrs. Holt didn’t trust Pidge not to fall overboard in their excitement of finding some anomaly.

Currently both of them were watching the radar down below, one hoping to see something that deserved investigation and the other trying to make sure they wouldn’t get caught off guard by a storm. Keith was sitting by the side, looking at the smooth ocean wondering just what was there.

Everything was quiet, the only noise being the soft shushing of waves against the boat and the calls of birds above. And then a song breaks through the silence. A long note stretching so far it should have broken but it didn’t, continuing on and on.

Keith turned and he saw soft light. He saw a woman with features like his own, and a taller man. They gestured to him, and as the song crested they spoke.

“Come here our son. Come and join us. We need you. We love you.”

And like a spell was put on him, he did. Walking towards his parents. Parents.

They loved him.

And then the spell was broken as he hit the water hard. Everything stung, his eyes and lungs and nose and mouth and even his shins as he felt them get torn at. By what? He opened his eyes again, wincing at the sting and saw a blurry figure.

It backed away, perhaps looking at what it had caught and he saw it in its full glory.

The creature was tinted green, from the ocean or naturally he couldn’t tell. It was morbidly humanoid, with long black hair that looked to be covered in a green sand like texture and threaded with seaweed. Its body was naked from the waist up and it had slices up and down its torso and a large what looked like a stab wound in its stomach. Over all of the slices was a thin film, looking almost like saran wrap. The cheeks were sallow and when it smiled they were filled with layers and layers of teeth. Its eyes were pitch black no color to be seen. If eyes were windows to the soul this thing had none. The nose was simply voldemorted, smooth skin taking the place of where it should be. Below its waist however, a scaled tail took the place of legs. White lumps scattered across the grey surface and at the fins there seemed to be little lights as if to entrance prey.

And then it attacked, nails that he had yet to notice carving into his flesh and teeth ripping at his clothes.

_This is how I go, in the place I hate most._

And then the ripping of skin stopped. A loud shriek carried through the water and when he opened his eyes his attacker was gone and in its place was another.

This mermaid - really a merman - was much prettier. His skin was tanned and his hair a deep brown that looked wavy even with the water. His eyes were bright blue and his skin was virtually unmarred, only a bruise around his neck and scars along his wrists. Even his tail was prettier, blue speckled with purples and no white lumps like the other had. His teeth, too, where smooth and he appeared to only have one layer of them, though it was hard to tell when his brain was all fuzzy.

The merman seemed to observe him for a moment before rushing forward to grab Keith, and he began to thrash again trying to escape from the grips of the monster. Because no matter how cute a monster is, you cannot let them eat you.

“Stop!” Keith does, and his eyes widen at the hissing voice, “Stop you stupid human! I’m here to help you, so stop moving around!”

Before Keith could start moving again, the merman twists around so Keith is almost hanging onto his back and then water is rushing at and by Keith as the pair zoom towards the sky. They break the surface and Keith immediately coughs up too much water, before gasping for air.

By the time he finished catching his breath, the merman was facing him again.Keith noticed he was still supported by something, though the creatures arms were free by his sides.

Keith immediately tried to get away, thrashing his legs and turning away. He’d watched enough swimming movies to know how to swim, right?

He heard a loud sigh from behind him, before a pair of muscular arms grabbed him and pulled him back.

“Come on dude, I just saved your life and now you wanna go and wreck that?”

Keith turned around in shock, and dumbly said, “What happened to your voice?”

The merman scowled, “Really? That’s the question you go with? Not, ‘Mermaids exist?’ or ‘Why’d you save me?’ or even ‘What’s your name?’” Keith opened his mouth to respond, but the merman cut him off, “Well to answer your question, it’s because while I can breathe through both my lungs and my gills, my body likes my lungs more and therefore my voice sounds more normal when out of water. Also yes mermaids exist, though it's complicated, I saved you ‘cause I’m not an asshole who likes to watch people die, and the name’s Lance.”

Keith gaped for a moment, slowly closed his mouth, and then spoke again. “I’m Keith… also I have a friend who’s real into conspiracies and thinks mermaids are real so I wasn’t too surprised.” he shivered from the chill of the ocean, “Now can you get me out of here ‘cause I’m fucking freezing.”

The merman - or Lance, Keith supposes - rolls his eyes. “I know a place, but you’re going to have to hold on. We don’t wanna get attacked by a swarm of Galra.” at Keith’s confused look he gestures at the water, “The scary monster mermaid that attacked you.”

“Is the place not infested by man-eating mermaids?”

Lance gave a shit eating grin, “You’re scared!”

Keith crossed his arms, “No, I’m not! I just don’t want to get drowned and eaten!”

“Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!”

Keith sighed defeatedly and latched his arms around Lance’s neck, and suddenly they were rushing forward again, though this time Keith’s head was steadily above water.

The water itself wasn’t too bad, actually, now that he wasn’t drowning and stuff. Besides from it being fucking freezing, the water actually was a nice blue grey, a bit like the cloudy sky above them.

As the pair moved along, the area in front of them evolved from a vast expanse of sea to a little strip of a slightly different color than the ocean, to an obvious chunk of probably land, to cliffs, to giant cliffs that birds probably nest on and sea lions probably live in.

Soon enough, Lance’s rapid pace slowed and his head popped up again from under the waves.

“So to get to this place we have to go underwater for about… a minute?” he thinks for a second, “Maybe a little bit shorter. Anyways, we gotta go under for a bit, you cool with that?”

Keith shrugged before realizing Lance couldn’t see him, “Uh, yeah. Give me a countdown before we go so I can get some air.”

“Cool. Well then on the count of three. One. Two.”

Keith took a big gulp of air.

“Three!”

And suddenly the merman dove underwater, and Keith was again assaulted by salt water in his eyes, though at least this time the burning water didn’t go into his lungs.

Around them seemed to be rocks, probably the side of the cliffs, though there were plenty of gaps and holes. One such hole seemed to be pretty large, big enough to fit a person or two through.

As it turned out, it was big enough to fit a person or two through, as Lance torpedoed them through the hole and into a small grotto type place.

They broke the water, and Keith let out the air he had been holding.

“Alright, climb onto that ledge over there and try to dry off I guess.”

Keith blushed, “Uh, I can’t swim. Like at all.”

Lance chuckled, “Well, duh. Here, you move yourself around so you’re facing me, and then I’ll give you a boost onto the ledge.”

Keith nodded, and then shuffled his arms around Lances neck until he faced him. He lifted his head to look at the boy and realized their faces were only a couple inches apart. He feels his face turn bright red, and he mutters, “Can you lift me now?”

Lance nods, his own face looking a bit pinker than before, and grabs Keith’s hips before lifting him out of the water. Keith decides to be useful, and reaches behind him to grab the ledge, his fingers scrabbling for a bit before he gets a good grip.

Once he’s seated on the rocky ledge, he pulls his legs up to sit criss-cross.

Lance sighs wistfully, “I miss doing that.”

“Huh?”

The other boy’s face looked startled for a moment, before going back to neutral. “Oh. Yes. I guess I should explain.” He pauses for a second, “Can I hop up there? This might take a bit to get through.”

Keith shrugged, and the boy pulled his body up onto the ledge, though his long tail still hung in the water.

Both boys were quiet for a moment and all that could be heard was the quiet lapping of water against the walls of the cave and the distant cry of seagulls.

“What attacked you was a siren. They’re,” he was quiet for a moment, “a violent type of mermaid I suppose. They survive by singing their song which lures in unsuspecting humans, like you. From what I’ve heard their song puts you in a trance that shows you what you most want. They usually travel in packs, and are incredibly inhuman. The pack that lives around here is the Galra, though what attacked you seemed to be a loner.

“Mermaids like me, on the other hand, are pretty peaceful. We usually survive by eating small fish or sea plants. Mostly we stay alone, but occasionally we form little groups. There are different subgroups of mermaids as well, besides sirens. It depends on how we’re born, since every mermaid or siren were originally human.”

Keith blinked at him slowly.

“Wait, what?”

Lance sighed heavily, “A mermaid is when someone who loves the ocean dies in a relatively peaceful way. So the subsections kinda depend on how they die, as there are markings that signal how. Basically a siren is born when someone is killed violently in the water, and they don’t have to love the ocean. It’s almost like a mutation of a mermaid. The one you encountered was probably the captive of some pirate years ago who got thrown overboard. Then there are Balmera, those that died of natural causes, Olkari, who died of a medical reason like a heart attack, Arusions, poison, and Alteans, who committed suicide. Once you die your original body obviously stays wherever it died, and your soul takes off and falls in the ocean and then the ocean creates a new body for you, one that looks just like your previous body including any injuries or marks that may have occurred during your death from the waist up. Then it gives you a tail in the color of your soul.”

Keith nodded slowly, before turning to Lance. “Which are you?”

He could obviously guess, simply from the appearance of the man, but he had always thought it wasn’t good to make assumptions.

Lance laughed, though not in a happy tone, the sound almost mocking. “Can’t you tell? I’m an Altean, the weakest of the bunch. I killed myself at seventeen with a piece of rope in the janitors closet of my job.”

Keith closed his eyes for a second, breathing deep, before yanking up his sleeve and grabbing Lance’s hand.

“Well if you’re weak, then I’m weaker. I couldn’t even do it without calling my friend before, so they caught me trying to down as many pills as possible.” he paused, “I had to go to the hospital for weeks. Dropped out of college.” a tear slipped down Lance’s face as he looked at the jagged lines running up Keith’s arm.

“If you’re weak, then so is my brothers boyfriend. He shot himself in the face three weeks before he graduated. Nobody even knew he was struggling. I still have the motorcycle he gave me the day before.”

Keith was definitely crying now, and when he looked away from his arm he saw Lance looking at him.

“Thank you,” he whispered, “And I’m sorry.”

Keith gave a soft smile, “It’s not your fault.”

“I know.”

And then Lance lurched and locked his arms around him, and he didn’t quite know what to do. Slowly though, he put his arms around the other boy and they stayed there for a bit before pulling away.

“Now, we should get you back to real land. You good to get back in?”

Keith nodded, and he was sure his face was pink.

“Yeah, uh, yeah.”

Lance grinned, “Cool! Then gimme a sec to hop in and then you can grab on again.”

The merman slid into the water and turned so Keith could easily grab his shoulders, which he did before pushing himself all the way into the water.

Lance counted to three once again and then they were underwater, though when Keith’s head popped up once they were out of the grotto Lance’s didn’t. They continued speeding ahead.

Soon enough, they reached a small beachy area and Lance again brought his head up.

“Alright, I think you can touch.”

Keith dropped his legs, and found that he could indeed touch. He smiled slightly.

“Well I suppose this is goodbye.”

“Yeah. You’ll come visit? You can probably hike to the cliffs and there's a way to get to my cave without swimming.”

Keith grinned, “Totally.”

Lance seemed to get excited then, “Yeah? You can meet some of my friends then! There’s Shay, and Allura, and Coran, and Kroila! And maybe you can bring some of yours?”

“Sure, I bet Pidge would love to take DNA samples from all of you.” he laughed, “I can tell them about you right? ‘Cause they're super into the ‘there are man-eating mermaids’ thing.”

Lance giggled, “Yeah. You can tell ‘em.” he glanced at the sky which was painted purple and pink and orange, “You better go.”

Keith sighed, “Yeah.”

In a moment of impulsiveness, he darted forward and kissed Lance’s forehead. When he pulled away the other boy simply looked shocked.

Keith turned away, “Well, uh, bye.”

He had hardly taken two steps when a firm hand grabbed his shoulder and twisted him around.

“Wha-“ His unfinished question was cut off by lips pressing against his.

After a moment, Lance pulled away, blushing. “Bye!”

And then he was gone in a splash of water.


End file.
